Congestive heart failure (CHF) and other forms of chronic cardiac dysfunction (CCD) are generally attributed to an autonomic imbalance of the sympathetic and parasympathetic nervous systems that, if left untreated, can lead to cardiac arrhythmogenesis, progressively worsening cardiac function and eventual patient death. CHF is pathologically characterized by an elevated neuroexcitatory state and is accompanied by physiological indications of impaired arterial and cardiopulmonary baroreflex function with reduced vagal activity.
CHF triggers compensatory activations of the sympathoadrenal (sympathetic) nervous system and the renin-angiotensin-aldosterone hormonal system, which initially help to compensate for deteriorating heart pumping function, yet, over time, can promote progressive left ventricular dysfunction and deleterious cardiac remodeling. Patients suffering from CHF are at increased risk of tachyarrhythmias, such as atrial fibrillation (AF), ventricular tachyarrhythmias (ventricular tachycardia (VT) and ventricular fibrillation (VF)), and atrial flutter, particularly when the underlying morbidity is a form of coronary artery disease, cardiomyopathy, mitral valve prolapse, or other valvular heart disease. Sympathoadrenal activation also significantly increases the risk and severity of tachyarrhythmias due to neuronal action of the sympathetic nerve fibers in, on, or around the heart and through the release of epinephrine (adrenaline), which can exacerbate an already-elevated heart rate.
VT originates solely in the lower heart in either the ventricular tissue or Purkinje fibers. During VT, electrical signals within the ventricles begin firing abnormally and cause a rapid rate of ventricular contraction; the rate is so rapid that the heart is unable to fill properly, thereby substantially reducing the forward flow, which results in dramatic reduction in the volume of blood ejected through the aortic valve into the peripheral vascular system. This sudden reduction in blood flow can have immediate deleterious consequences since the brain and other vital organ systems require adequate blood perfusion to maintain their biological integrity. When starved of blood, even for short periods of time, vital organ systems can be damaged. The brain is particularly sensitive to reduced cardiac output. Initially, during low flow conditions, such as during VT, the brain's electrical systems are affected, and patient consciousness may be compromised. If this low or no flow condition persists for minutes, brain tissue damage begins. After six to eight minutes, this damage can become permanent and may ultimately lead to chronic impairment or death, unless the hemodynamic compromise caused by the VT is immediately and definitively corrected. During the VT, action potentials circulating in the ventricles collide and interfere with the normal propagation of action potentials from the sinoatrial (SA) node and the resulting rapid heart rate causes the heart chambers to contract prematurely and without adequately filling, thus preventing proper blood flow and causing potentially lethal hemodynamic compromise.
While other forms of tachycardia, specifically supraventricular (SVT) and sinus tachycardia, are relatively benign unless episodic or prolonged, VT can present life-threatening risk and can degenerate into VF, asystole and sudden cardiac death. Both VT and particularly VF, as well as other forms of potentially life-threatening tachyarrhythmias, must be promptly treated to restore the heart to normal sinus rhythm. The current standard of care for treating VT includes, in order of increasing medical urgency, anti-arrhythmic medications, cardioversion, radiofrequency ablation, and heart surgery. Despite VT existing as an underlying complication of chronic cardiac dysfunction, the primary morbidity, CHF, is typically only managed through the prescription of pharmacological agents and application of dietary and lifestyle changes. As well, in contrast to the customary urgent treatment of VT, the medical measures for managing CHF are merely palliative, not curative. Patients often suffer side effects and other comorbidities, in addition to increased VT risk, due to disease progression.
The standard of care for managing CCD in general continues to evolve. For instance, new therapeutic approaches that employ electrical stimulation of neural structures that directly address the underlying cardiac autonomic nervous system imbalance and dysregulation have been proposed. In one form, controlled stimulation of the cervical vagus nerve beneficially modulates cardiovascular regulatory function. Currently, vagus nerve stimulation (VNS) is only approved for the clinical treatment of drug-refractory epilepsy and depression, although VNS has been proposed as a therapeutic treatment of CHF in general and has been demonstrated in canine studies as efficacious in simulated treatment of AF and heart failure, such as described in Zhang et al., “Therapeutic Effects of Selective Atrioventricular Node Vagal Stimulation in Atrial Fibrillation and Heart Failure,” J. Cardiovasc. Electrophysiol., Vol. pp. 1-6 (Jul. 9, 2012), the disclosure of which is incorporated by reference.
Conventional general therapeutic alteration of cardiac vagal efferent activation through electrical stimulation targets only the efferent nerves of the parasympathetic nervous system, such as described in Sabbah et al., “Vagus Nerve Stimulation in Experimental Heart Failure,” Heart Fail. Rev., 16:171-178 (2011), the disclosure of which is incorporated by reference. The Sabbah paper discusses canine studies using a vagus nerve stimulation system, manufactured by BioControl Medical Ltd., Yehud, Israel, which includes an electrical pulse generator, right ventricular endocardial sensing lead, and right vagus nerve cuff stimulation lead. The sensing lead enables stimulation of the right vagus nerve in a highly specific manner, which involves closed-loop synchronization of the vagus nerve stimulation pulse to the cardiac cycle. An asymmetric tri-polar nerve cuff electrode is implanted on the right vagus nerve at the mid-cervical position. The electrode provides cathodic induction of action potentials while simultaneously applying asymmetric anodal blocks that lead to preferential activation of vagal efferent fibers. Electrical stimulation of the right cervical vagus nerve is delivered only when heart rate increases beyond a preset threshold. Stimulation is provided at an impulse rate and intensity intended to reduce basal heart rate by ten percent by preferential stimulation of efferent vagus nerve fibers leading to the heart while blocking afferent neural impulses to the brain. Although effective in partially restoring baroreflex sensitivity and, in the canine model, increasing left ventricular ejection fraction and decreasing left ventricular end diastolic and end systolic volumes, the degree of therapeutic effect on parasympathetic activation occurs through incidental recruitment of afferent parasympathetic nerve fibers in the vagus, as well as through recruitment of efferent fibers. Efferent stimulation alone is less effective at restoring autonomic balance than bi-directional stimulation.
Other uses of electrical nerve stimulation for therapeutic treatment of various cardiac and physiological conditions are described. For instance, U.S. Pat. No. 6,600,954, issued Jul. 29, 2003 to Cohen et al. discloses a method and apparatus for selective control of nerve fiber activations. An electrode device is applied to a nerve bundle capable of generating, upon activation, unidirectional action potentials that propagate through both small diameter and large diameter sensory fibers in the nerve bundle, and away from the central nervous system. The device is particularly useful for reducing pain sensations in the legs and arms.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,684,105, issued Jan. 27, 2004 to Cohen et al. discloses an apparatus for treatment of disorders by unidirectional nerve stimulation. An apparatus for treating a specific condition includes a set of one or more electrode devices that are applied to selected sites of the central or peripheral nervous system of the patient. For some applications, a signal is applied to a nerve, such as the vagus nerve, to stimulate efferent fibers and treat motility disorders, or to a portion of the vagus nerve innervating the stomach to produce a sensation of satiety or hunger. For other applications, a signal is applied to the vagus nerve to modulate electrical activity in the brain and rouse a comatose patient, or to treat epilepsy and involuntary movement disorders.
U.S. Pat. No. 7,123,961, issued Oct. 17, 2006 to Kroll et al. discloses stimulation of autonomic nerves. An autonomic nerve is stimulated to affect cardiac function using a stimulation device in electrical communication with the heart by way of three leads suitable for delivering multi-chamber stimulation and shock therapy. For arrhythmia detection, the device utilizes atrial and ventricular sensing circuits to sense cardiac signals to determine whether a rhythm is physiologic or pathologic. The timing intervals between sensed events are classified by comparing them to a predefined rate zone limit and other characteristics to determine the type of remedial therapy needed, which includes bradycardia pacing, anti-tachycardia pacing, cardioversion shocks (synchronized with an R-wave), or defibrillation shocks (delivered asynchronously).
U.S. Pat. No. 7,225,017, issued May 29, 2007 to Shelchuk discloses terminating VT in connection with any stimulation device that is configured or configurable to stimulate nerves, or stimulate and shock a patient's heart. Parasympathetic stimulation is used to augment anti-tachycardia pacing, cardioversion, or defibrillation therapy. To sense atrial or ventricular cardiac signals and provide chamber pacing therapy, particularly on the left side of the patient's heart, the stimulation device is coupled to a lead designed for placement in the coronary sinus or its tributary veins. Cardioversion stimulation is delivered to a parasympathetic pathway upon detecting a ventricular tachycardia. A stimulation pulse is delivered via the lead to one or more electrodes positioned proximate to the parasympathetic pathway according to stimulation pulse parameters based on the probability of reinitiation of an arrhythmia.
U.S. Pat. No. 7,277,761, issued Oct. 2, 2007 to Shelchuk discloses vagal stimulation for improving cardiac function in heart failure patients. An autonomic nerve is stimulated to affect cardiac function using a stimulation device in electrical communication with the heart by way of three leads suitable for delivering multi-chamber endocardial stimulation and shock therapy. Where the stimulation device is intended to operate as an implantable cardioverter-defibrillator (ICD), the device detects the occurrence of an arrhythmia, and applies a therapy to the heart aimed at terminating the detected arrhythmia. Defibrillation shocks are generally of moderate to high energy level, delivered asynchronously, and pertaining exclusively to the treatment of fibrillation.
U.S. Pat. No. 7,295,881, issued Nov. 13, 2007 to Cohen et al. discloses nerve branch-specific action potential activation, inhibition and monitoring. Two preferably unidirectional electrode configurations flank a nerve junction from which a preselected nerve branch issues, proximally and distally to the junction, with respect to the brain. Selective nerve branch stimulation can be used with nerve-branch specific stimulation to achieve selective stimulation of a specific range of fiber diameters, restricted to a preselected nerve branch, including heart rate control, where activating only the vagal B nerve fibers in the heart, and not vagal A nerve fibers that innervate other muscles, can be desirous.
U.S. Pat. No. 7,778,703, issued Aug. 17, 2010 to Gross et al. discloses selective nerve fiber stimulation for treating heart conditions. An electrode device is adapted to be coupled to a vagus nerve of a subject and a control unit drives the electrode device by applying stimulating and inhibiting currents to the vagus nerve, which are capable of respectively inducing action potentials in a therapeutic direction in a first set and a second set of nerve fibers in the vagus nerve and inhibiting action potentials in the therapeutic direction in the second set of nerve fibers only. The nerve fibers in the second set have larger diameters than the nerve fibers in the first set. Typically, the system is configured to treat heart failure or heart arrhythmia, such as atrial fibrillation or tachycardia by slowing or stabilizing the heart rate, or reducing cardiac contractility.
U.S. Pat. No. 7,813,805, issued Oct. 12, 2010 to Farazi and U.S. Pat. No. 7,869,869, issued Jan. 11, 2011 to Farazi both disclose subcardiac threshold vagus nerve stimulation. A vagus nerve stimulator is configured to generate electrical pulses below a cardiac threshold, which are transmitted to a vagus nerve, so as to inhibit or reduce injury resulting from ischemia. For arrhythmia detection, a heart stimulator utilizes atrial and ventricular sensing circuits to sense cardiac signals to determine whether a rhythm is physiologic or pathologic. In low-energy cardioversion, an ICD device typically delivers a cardioversion stimulus synchronously with a QRS complex; thus, avoiding the vulnerable period of the T-wave and avoiding an increased risk of initiation of VF. In general, if anti-tachycardia pacing or cardioversion fails to terminate a tachycardia, then, for example, after a programmed time interval or if the tachycardia accelerates, the ICD device initiates defibrillation therapy.
Finally, U.S. Pat. No. 7,885,709, issued Feb. 8, 2011 to Ben-David discloses nerve stimulation for treating disorders. A control unit drives an electrode device to stimulate the vagus nerve, so as to modify heart rate variability, or to reduce heart rate, by suppressing the adrenergic (sympathetic) system. Typically, the system is configured to treat heart failure or heart arrhythmia, such as AF or tachycardia. In one embodiment, a control unit is configured to drive an electrode device to stimulate the vagus nerve, so as to modify heart rate variability to treat a condition of the subject. Therapeutic effects of reduction in heart rate variability include the narrowing of the heart rate range, thereby eliminating very slow heart rates and very fast heart rates. For this therapeutic application, the control unit is typically configured to reduce low-frequency heart rate variability, and to adjust the level of stimulation applied based on the circadian and activity cycles of the subject. Therapeutic effects also include maximizing the mechanical efficiency of the heart by maintaining relatively constant ventricular filling times and pressures. For example, this therapeutic effect may be beneficial for subjects suffering from atrial fibrillation, in which fluctuations in heart filling times and pressure reduce cardiac efficiency.
Accordingly, a need remains for an approach to therapeutically treating chronic cardiac dysfunction, including CHF, and cardiac arrhythmogenesis, specifically tachycardia, through a form of VNS to improve autonomic balance and cardiovascular regulatory function.